The Forest Hill reading group will be talking about this book in February.
It is available in Lewisham libraries and is a prodigal son drama.
What they say about it:
The Reverend Boughton’s hell-raising son, Jack, has come home after twenty years away. Artful and devious in his youth, now an alcoholic carrying two decades worth of secrets, he is perpetually at odds with his traditionalist father, though he remains his most beloved child. As Jack tries to make peace with his father, he begins to forge an intense bond with his sister Glory, herself returning home with a broken heart and turbulent past. Home is a luminous and healing book about families, family secrets, and faith from one of America’s most beloved and acclaimed authors.
Have you read this book? If so let us know what you think.
Filed under: Family, Forest Hill reading group Tagged: | Marilynne Robinson
Having just been introduced to this book blog at the Forest Hill reading group, and having missed last months meeting when “Home” was discussed, I thought I would have a look here.
I enjoyed “Home” enough that one day I expect I shall read Gilead, and discover more of the patriarch of the Broughtons. Jack remained a far more shadowy figure than his father, and I am not sure I felt this to be a story of the prodigal son so much as the youngest of the family and the way that families can almost seem to colude in pretences and secrets.
The stangest thing was that I could not shake off the idea which I had formed somehow that the Broughtons were a negro family! I know they are Presbyterians and that there are several references to their Scots ancestry, but for whatever reason I got it into my head they were negro and it stuck! Which was awkward when it came to Della of course, but even then I couldn’t shake that feeling.
I wonder if anyone else had that idea, or is it was only me?